starting with coach Gasperini.
A man who lasted just three months at
Inter in the immediate traumatic wake of
Jose Mourinho, Gasperini has long looked
like an inspired coach, first at Genoa and
now with Atalanta.
Beppe Bergomi, a 1982 World Cup
winner and someone who has worked
in the Atalanta youth set-up, says the
arrival of Gasperini in 2016 provided the
spark that prompted the club’s explosion.
Bergomi argues that Gasperini is a very
different Italian coach, someone who
wants his teams to impose an intense,
aggressive game and is not frightened
to play on the front foot.
“They’re so intense,” says Bergomi. “If
Gomez & Ilicic
Atalanta’s little
and largeOne of the observations often
made about Atalanta is how
coach Gian Piero Gasperini
brings out the best in players.
Those who looked ordinary
elsewhere begin to look like
world beaters when they line up
for him. Likewise, many of those
who leave Atalanta rarely look as
good once sold to bigger clubs.
The perfect point in case
are Argentinian playmaker
Alejandro “Papu” Gomezand Slovene attacking midfielder
Josip Ilicic.
In their previous footballing
lives – Gomez at Catania and
Ilicic with both Palermo and
Fiorentina – both looked good
Serie A players if not inspirational
match winners. Under Gasperini’s
attack-minded coaching they
have become the double cherry
on the Atalanta cake.
If Gomez sets them up, Ilicic
puts them away – as underlined
by his five goals in the 8-4
aggregate Champions Leaguevictory against Valencia.
Make no mistake, Atalanta
have a talented squad, and the
likes of Dutch defender Hans
Hateboer, Swiss midfielder Remo
Freuler, Ukraine midfielder
Ruslan Malinovskyi, on loan Croat
midfielder Mario Pasalic and
Colombian striker Duvan Zapata
can all play.
Inspired by Gomez, with Ilicic
up front and guided by Gasperini,
this is a serious side.you take the game against Lecce, you
saw it all. Few sides can survive against
them over the 90 minutes.
“Lecce did really well to get it back to
2-2 at half-time, but Atalanta just came
out and bulldozed them off the park in
the second half to win 7-2. Few teams
can withstand them.”
Bergomi argues that as well as being
inspired by Gasperini, this Atalanta team
have been carefully put together thanks
to Atalanta’s superb network of scouts,
overseen by technical director Giovanni
Sartori. Widely considered one of thebest talent spotters in Italian football,
Sartori was a key element in the
remarkable success story of Chievo
in the early years of this century. When
Sartori resigned from Chievo in 2014,
Percassi did not hang about and bought
him to Atalanta within a month.
Atalanta are clearly a potent
expression of Bergamo, a handsome city
some 40km from Milan which is fiercely
proud of its Lombardy heritage.
Carlo Cavanesi of the local paper,
L’Eco di Bergamo, is just one of many
who acknowledge that the good folk of
Bergamo are getting just a little excited,
arguing that there is plenty more to come
and pointing to the club’s ambitious
redevelopment of the old Stadio Azzurri
d’Italia as proof of their continuing growth
and ambition.
One suspects that you are going to
hear a lot more about Atalanta.Atalanta
Goals...IlicicPlaymaker...GomezIntense...Hans
Hateboer (left)
and Josip Ilicic in
the thick of things
against ValenciaExcited...Atlanta’s
fans are proud
of their club’s
achievements